Friday, 20 February 2015

Today I'm not feeling too great as I am full of a nasty cold, so I decided to put together this card to cheer myself up this morning.

I actually coloured this digi by Karleigh Sue a few days ago with promarkers and spectrum noir pencils, embellishing her tail with glitter and adding pearls to her hair ( you can find her in the shoppe here) , and last night I remembered I had some prints I had made on my Gelli Plate a while ago using acrylic paint that would compliment her perfectly. I die cut an aperture from one print and sprinkled some frantage on it and embossed, inked some acetate with alcohol inks to create a watery effect, and attached them together. The mermaid sat on the other lighter print behind the acetate. The whole image was mounted on blue and silver mirrored card stock to frame it, and I added a few shell embellishments to the front.

If you love this digi and want to know more about the world of Karleigh Sue please follow the Facebook Fan Page. There is also a monthly challenge blog here- it would be great to have you play along . If you need inspiration check out the Inspiration Blog to help get those creative juices flowing! Above all though- have fun!

Today I would like to share with you a wooden jewellery box ( from the MDF Man) that I have altered. Something a bit different for me as making cards tends to be my main crafting 'thing' but I really enjoyed this little project.

The box was painted using Americana Chalky Decor paint in a shade called Vintage. I had a bit of crafters block once I'd painted it, and it sat unfinished for a few weeks after that, but last weekend I decided to start playing and see what I could do to finish it off.

I love steampunk, and the paper 'Time Flies' by Craftwork Cards matched the colour tone of the paint perfectly so I decided to work with that. I distressed it with Shaded Lilac and Bundled Sage distress ink to tone the brightness of the paper down a little.

The stamp I used is one of my all time favourites from Kanban. I stamped her several times on some of the other papers in the Time Flies pack, paper pieced them and shaded with more distress ink. Some cut out butterflies added some dimension to embellish her outfit, which I painted with H2O's .I die cut some Spellbinders cogs on grey card and shaded them with perfect pearls, stamped some more underneath and mounted it all on the box, adding some flowers and metal and wooden embellishments, which I coloured with gilding wax and silver Buff It.

I decided the sides also needed to look pretty, so finished them off with papers, lace, metal corners and a butterfly.

I am so pleased with how this turned out, and I have to say it looks beautiful sat on my bedside cabinet. I'm off to a craft show in a few weeks so will be on the lookout for more MDF Man products to work on. It's good to step out of the comfort zone once in a while!

Sunday, 15 February 2015

So, it's here at last!! The brand new Karleigh Sue Sexy Challenge has launched and I am so excited to be part of the design team for it and share my first super hot sexy project with you.

Rather than a card I decided to make an otherwise boring box of Cadburys chocolates a tad more interesting. What fella wouldn't like to dig into these after all?! I used a deep red rose backing paper mounted on black card to cover the box, coloured Heels, Pearls and Chocolate with promarkers ( you can find her in the digi shoppe here) and fussy cut her before adding her to the box. Some ribbon, a sentiment and some bling completed this oh so tasty gift.

We would love to see your super sexy projects so do come over to the challenge blog and join in the fun. If you want to keep up with all the latest KS news you may also like to follow the Facebook page.

Monday, 2 February 2015

Last night I started out painting a wooden box that I have had sitting around for a while, but I couldn't decided what to do on it after the first coat of paint was on ( don't you just hate it when that happens!). While I was rummaging around my cupboards for inspiration a wooden heart plaque that I had painted red ages ago, then also lost my way with, jumped out at me. An idea for it finally took hold so I ran with it to see what would happen and here's the end result! I'm not 100% happy with it as the black paint didn't go on nearly as smoothly as I would have liked, but I think I got away with it as it adds texture. It's not my usual style at all but I think it's quite funky!

Ingredients used:

MDF heart ( from the MDF Man)

Red,black and copper acrylic paint

Steampunk mask

Splodgeboard cogs

Black Soot distress ink

Sentiment stamp ( free with a recent magazine)

Cosmic shimmer spray

gold and copper gilding wax

Silver Buff It

Black ink pad

Guess I'd better get to grips with the box now. Hopefully inspiration will strike soon!

Sunday, 1 February 2015

It's February and love is in the air. Yep- Valentines is upon us once more. I confess I'm not the most romantic of souls, and hubby and I don't tend to celebrate Valentines Day ( I think we are just a bit past all that after 22yrs together and cynical about how commercial the day has become!), but we do like to curl up in front of the fire and chew over our busy days with a glass of wine so my DT inspiration for the challenge over at Karleigh Sue Challenge Blog was made with that in mind.

I used watercolour paper with distress inks and stamps to create the background of my tag, and added the gorgeous Love Potion digi ( can be found in the shoppe here). I coloured her in a rich purple- one of my favourite colours, with a combination of Promarkers and Spectrun Noir pencils. I secured it to the bottle using red ribbon with hearts on from my stash.

If you're feeling romantically inclined we would love to see your Valentines makes over on the challenge blog. If you need some inspiration why not hop over to the inspiration blog or Facebook fan page for a nosey and to keep up to date with what's new in the land of Karleigh Sue.

This morning I'd like to share with you a card I have made for Valentines Day.

I created the backing paper myself using Spectrum Noir Aquatint ink, which I applied to wet water colour paper, then lay cling film over the top to create the crumpled effect, and waited to dry. I really love the pattern it left on the card- such a simple technique but a striking one. I then used a Splodgeaway mask and fired brick distress ink to add the hearts, and stamped the main heart with my Heart INKognito stamp by Visable Image. I added a touch of Frantage to add a little sparkle. I mounted on black card, with a ribbon and Visable Image sentiment stamp to finish it off.